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Saturday, June 05, 2010

Okay, we all know (don’t we!) that you don’t pay an agent. If an agent wants money up front or wants you to pay for editing (or directs you to a specific editing service that charges, then they’ll read your submission), run. If you sign with an agent, you may be charged for some fees such as shipping your manuscript to editors…maybe.

But here’s a story where you can pay a top-notch agent to read the first 50 pages of your manuscript and it’s legit. But would you?

Each month, Irene Goodman of the Irene Goodman Literary Agency, “puts her services up on eBay to benefit three foundations that fund research to cure deafness and blindness: the Deafness Research Foundation, Hope for Vision and Foundation Fighting Blindness. Bidding starts at $500 for each of the three monthly auctions, and the winners get to have the first 50 pages of their manuscripts read and critiqued by Goodman.”

I'd say I would have to agree with Enid. If you're looking for these services and as long as it was a legit charity and the agent is good. You would basically just be making a donation to a good cause.

I'm inclined to agree with Enid and Mason (until someone makes a strong case for the other side; I'm wishy-washy on this). If you think of it as a contest where there's a final judge who is an agent or big name author or someone you'd want to perhaps have a connection with, and you enter it knowing your odds are teeny ... and in this case, the money goes to a cause you support, and you can afford it...

I'd say no. There's something just unethical about it. It's almost as though she's toying with writers desperate for an in, hooking them with that possibility, for someone else's benefit. I don't really think that's the way to go for the "sake of charity."

In her defense, and I don't know her at all, she never claims to be looking for authors to represent. But, you're right, having an agent do the critique would get the hopes up of new writers looking for an agent. There are contests out there that say up front that the winning entry may get published, so if that's what you're looking for, go there.

Sign up for my newsletter (plug, plug). I post contests in it every week. You can also check my website where I have a page of contests and a page of events for writers that I update every week.

I tend to agree with the side that says it's a legit way to raise money for charity. 500 dollars is way beyond my price range, but I know others who would be happy to spend that.

I stopped by at the Do the Write Thing for Nashville site a few times and checked out the auctions there. They had page critiques from authors and agents and phone calls with agents and lunches with agents, and many of the auctions got into the thousand dollar range before they closed.

I think it's like anything else, if there's a demand for it, the price goes up.

(And while I personally would rather pay an editor to look at a bigger chunk, some people aren't looking for edits per say, they're looking for agent reaction to give them an idea of where to go next.)

I guess I look at this as a 'can I afford to donate to the charity anyway' gig. I'm sure she does an excellent job and it is incredibly helpful. I'm also sure it is not worth more than $50--I suspect a REGULAR editor, at a more reasonable rate, could do the same, AND I think our peer reviewers could do NEARLY as good in a tit for tat system.

I don't have a problem with this as a charity fundraiser, but I don't think it should be confused with a 'business of publishing' option.

I'm split on this one, Helen. Great way to raise money for a charity. But if the bidding starts at $500, do you realize how insane it must become toward the end? Desperate writers bidding for their chance to be read, with money they don't really have...

I look at it as any other service offered at a charity auction. I don't see anything wrong with it. If someone was going to donate $500+ to a charity anyway, it might make sense to get a manuscript reading out of it. It would just be gravy.

But I have to wonder what the fair market value would be. When someone donates to a charity and gets something of value in return, only the difference between the FMV and the amount donated counts towards a charitable contribution. You know how the IRS is.

I would possibly be inclined to do it, just to support a charity, if the fee were a lot less. That is a lot to pay for an analysis of just 50 pages. I would rather pay an editor for an analysis of the whole book.

Angel Sometimes by Helen Ginger

Angel Sometimes

Helen Ginger

Helen is the author of five books: three non-fiction, a short story anthology and a contemporary fiction, Angel Sometimes. She maintains an informational and interactive blog for writers and a weekly e-newsletter that has been going out to subscribers around the globe for thirteen years. She is an owner-partner and Women’s Marketing Director for Legends In Our Own Minds®, which specializes in creative networking opportunities for companies and groups.